The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Force India in final phase of testing

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Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008
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Sport - Racing : Motor

Force India in final phase of testing

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Barcelona: Even as a rain-swept Barcelona forced its citizens to pull out their weather-proof jackets on Monday morning, a few men at the Circuit De Catalunya at Montmelo, a northern suburb, would have been feeling the warmth of a billion hopes resting on them.

It’s not often that the Indians get to cheer for their own team in the F-1 circuit.

With Vijay Mallya launching the Force India team for the forthcoming season, drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil have an unenviable task as they, along with their support staff, do the final rounds of testing at the circuit where Michael Schumacher won his first Grand Prix for Ferrari in 1996.

During the three-day testing from Monday to Wednesday, the Force India team will scrutinise the VJMO1 that is to be unveiled soon.

Gearbox, brakes, under-force currents and other technical parameters will be analysed and calculations made in time for the season-opener in Melbourne on March 16.

Loving a challenge

For the 35-year-old Fisichella, with 196 Grand Prix appearances to his credit, the shift from Renault to Force India was a move guided by the instinct to prove people wrong.

“The general opinion was that I should have quit F1. On the contrary, I love challenges and want to prove everyone wrong,” the Italian driver, Fisichella, said recently.

For his German teammate Adrian Sutil, who last season turned out for Spyker, the shift to Force India was a natural progression as his team was bought over by Mallya and relaunched as the Indian outfit.

The 25-year old Sutil is regarded as an emerging talent and this season could offer further testimony to that.

Fisichella finished eighth and Sutil hovered at the 19th spot in the drivers’ standings last year.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) are also expected to test their vehicles from Monday to Wednesday but the spotlight will firmly be on the Force India team for the Indians.

The conditions, ranging from inclement weather to the physical parameters of the circuit that includes long straights and a variety of corners, will test man and machine.

However, for Force India, these final tests in the land of the matador might well show whether the team has taken the ‘bull by the horns.’

Improved results

Fisichella has said that the results will improve during the second phase of the season.

Meanwhile, millions of F1 fans in India who have cheered the Schumachers and Alonsos before finding their patriotic fervour while supporting Narain Karthikeyan can hold their breaths for a season that promises to add more tricolour to the F1 stands as well as the television ratings.

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